


Jävlabocken

by Jiiri



Series: Yuletide 2019 SSSS Fan Forum [2]
Category: Stand Still Stay Silent
Genre: Christmas, Cleansers, EmiLalli if you squint, Friendship, Gen, Magic, Sweden (country), Yule
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-09
Updated: 2020-01-09
Packaged: 2021-02-27 14:21:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,191
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22188535
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jiiri/pseuds/Jiiri
Summary: Yuletide in Mora. Emil gets a summons, and cold feet. Luckily he has friends.Written for the Fan Forum Advent Calendar 2019. The Yuletide 2019 series is not meant to be a continuum, these are separate one-offs.
Relationships: Reynir Arnason&Lalli Hotakainen&Emil Västerström
Series: Yuletide 2019 SSSS Fan Forum [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1597210
Comments: 4
Kudos: 18





	Jävlabocken

**Author's Note:**

> Edited in April 2020 (repeatedly! But I think it works now!) to add the illustration by Kyara, no changes in the story.

It was the middle of December. For Lalli’s intense relief, all the briefings, meetings and ceremonies were finally over. Sigrun and Mikkel had set for Dalsnes to be there by Yule, so it was the three boys at the house now. Reynir should have been going home too, but he was worried that this time his mum would lock him up. He had tried to invite his family to come over, but with Guðrun’s baby on the way, his mother wouldn’t move an inch. Thank the gods for that mercy, Lalli thought.

An official messenger from the Cleansers HQ arrived for Emil. Amazed Emil opened the envelope and shrieked out. Lalli had trouble discerning whether it was for delight or fear, possibly a bit of both. Emil thrusted the fine paper with official looking stamps to Lalli and explained something clearly very exciting. Despite Emil’s frantic gesturing, Lalli understood hardly anything. It was something to do with Yule, and fire, and lots of people. Probably something about Cleansers too. Following the commotion, Reynir turned up as well but apparently, he didn’t understand much either. Emil stared at the letter, looking very happy and proud, and then hugged it to his chest. So, it was probably something good.

Emil had already been a busy bee with Yule preparations, with Reynir of course helping. They both appeared to have different ideas about what would be required, and neither of course had much idea what a proper Yule celebration would include. There wasn’t even a sauna in the house! Lalli was a little worried about what the ancestors would think of him missing another celebration. Last year he had been on a mission, but this was more voluntary. He would have been free to leave for Keuruu now, but Emil had family here in Mora, and leaving without him… just didn’t feel like the right thing to do. Well, at least Emil and Reynir were clearly preparing a feast. Lalli could make his offerings in the garden. It would be less than ideal, but surely the ancestors would understand.

Apparently, there was some new thing now. Emil kept blabbering about it, but still Lalli couldn’t make out much more than “fire”. The name of the thing appeared to be _Jävlabocken_ , and Emil was very excited about it. At first, he was happily expectant and busied himself with his Cleanser uniform, but within a couple of days his mood grew more and more worried. By the 20th he was nearly panicking. Lalli tried to comfort him, but it was hard as he didn’t understand what the problem was.

Lalli had seen glimpses of Emil’s dreams and they were weird and scary. There was a yellow beast attacking Emil, and lots of people. In another one Lalli nearly got pulled into a scene where Emil was naked on the Strandtorget square and all around people were pointing and yelling at him. So, on the 21st in the evening, Lalli tried to communicate to Emil to come to the fishing dock during their dreams so they could talk.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The dream did indeed open with Lalli sitting next to Emil, but they were not at the dock. They were sitting on an uncomfortable and weird wooden bench inside a large building with a vaulted ceiling high above. The ceiling and walls were mostly chalked white, with what looked like some once coloured pillars. Wooden structures, apparently painted a very long ago, were visible at both narrower ends of the room. The house had weird-shaped windows that were high and round at the top, echoing the general shape of the grand room. But the most striking thing were the candles. There were candles everywhere. Large candelabra on the floor and on the wooden structures, great chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, and dozens upon dozens of smaller candleholders on the walls all the way up to the ceiling. There was no other light, but the myriad candles made the large space softly lit throughout. _It's like being among the stars. Very beautiful._

“This isn’t one of mine. Where are we?”. Whispering came naturally, the silence in the space felt like a lot of people used to be still in there.  
“This is the Yule House. Back home in Östersund. It’s some Old World building. I think it was important in its time. We had Yule festivals for the town there every year, with singing and food.”  
“The candles. Beautiful.”  
“They are. I remember being in awe of them when I was little… we went there as a family… Anyways, there are even more in here. Much more, we didn’t have any on the walls. Actually, I think some of the higher ones are floating, aren’t they?”

Their admiring of the Yule House was interrupted by a loud echoing knock. The grand door at the end of the room opened and someone stepped in.

“Reynir! What in the name of the gods are you doing in here?”  
“Sorry guys. I want to know what is going on as well. So, when I noticed you set up a meeting I decided to come too”  
“What? You can follow us here too? This is not the Dream Ocean!”  
“I can’t, not Emil. But I can follow you, if I find you on the Dream Ocean before you come here. What is here anyways? It’s not a normal dream either, is it?”  
“What, you, you can… do you follow me a lot?”  
“No, no! I hardly ever do that! And as you noticed, I knocked to give you an advance warning. I wouldn’t want to surprise you in…” Reynir's voice faded. Lalli and Emil looked at each other’s reddening faces.

“We didn’t come for the building” Lalli carried on, suddenly very briskly. “Emil, I want to know what is going on? You have been fretting, very nearly scared for a couple of days now.”  
“Oh, yes. It’s the Devil Goat” (in Swedish, Jävlabocken)  
“??? A devil goat?”  
“It’s a Yule thing, a very important tradition in Sweden!”  
“I thought you didn’t have any traditions? You are godless!” Reynir interjected.  
“There are traditions other than religious ones! We celebrate Yule too, I’m sure you have noticed!”  
“But what IS the devil goat? And what does it have to with you?”

Emil explained. The Jävlabocken was a great beast constructed of straw every winter. On the 23rd of December, the Jävlabocken was burnt in a fire ceremony. It was a very popular event in Mora, sometimes nearly half of the townspeople gathered to see it.

“I approve of this tradition” Lalli nodded affirmatively. “A fire ceremony at Yule, that’s a proper thing to do! The gods will like it!”  
“It’s not religious! It’s a symbol of Sweden, and particularly our Cleansers, triumphing over trolls and beasts. And actually, it’s an Old World custom. The Swedes used to build these goats and burn them at yuletide long before the Rash.”  
“But I think they didn’t have any beasts or trolls at the time? What was the point of this?” Reynir wondered.

Emil shrugged. “I don’t know, but I do know it was a big thing already! Anyways, the Jävlabocken is set on fire by a Cleanser selected for the task. Usually it’s one of the senior officers. It’s practically the greatest honour that can befall a Cleanser. And this year, I was summoned to do it! Me!”  
“So, the letter you got…?”  
“Yes, it was to let me know I’m expected there. I guess the Denmark expedition was kinda cool, and after we received the Golden Bear from the Finnish Defence Force, the Cleansers HQ seems to be impressed with me. So, they want ME to burn the Mora Jävlabocken this year! Why me?”

Reynir was confused “You just said it’s a great honour. Why are you so upset?”  
“Everybody will be there! It’s huge! What if I do something wrong! What if it doesn’t burn properly! What if it doesn’t burn at all! I have to light it with a traditional hand lighter too, I won’t even have a flamethrower!”  
“I’m sure it will be fine, you’ll do great” Reynir was trying to comfort Emil. Lalli added “Since when have you ever had trouble setting something on fire? Usually it’s the other way around!” “Yes, that’s another thing!” Emil was almost wailing now. “What if it burns too early? What if there is rain, or ice, or I stumble, or my hair looks ridiculous, or…” Emil was nearly hyperventilating.

It took a while for Lalli and Reynir to convince Emil that everything would be fine. He really was very good at setting things on fire, so it shouldn’t be a problem. Reynir promised to be there, and Lalli squeezed Emil’s shoulder supportively.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next day was mostly ok. There was nothing more Emil could possibly have done to make his uniform any neater, so he was concentrating on Lalli’s. He made Lalli wash his hair with that weird smelling shampoo of his and insisted on brushing it with something that made it feel different, but, admittedly, nicely soft. Emil also tried to get Reynir to do something about his hair, but apparently with no success. At least the braid looked exactly like it always did. There were bouts of hand-wringing, but at least the nightmares had stopped. This in turn did wonders to Emil’s complexion, and Lalli’s mood.

On the big day they went early to the Cleansers HQ. After some speeches (in Swedish, i.e. utterly boring) and food (good) they set for the Strandtorget square with the senior cleansers. Lalli still didn’t quite know what to expect. He hadn’t been around the town lately as Emil and Reynir had been taking care of the festive preparations. Their house was beautiful now, and there was lots of various sorts of food, including at least two types of cookies. But first there was this weird fire thing to take care of.

Upon arrival to the Strandtorget, it was impossible to not notice the Jävlabocken. A huge creature, at least 5m high at the shoulder, was constructed of straw on the side of the square facing the lake. There had to be some kind of a frame inside it. The stocky body with four legs held two heads, one with horns that had to be at least as long as Reynir and the other one with an open maw, as well as a collection of appendages (representing some sort of tentacles maybe?) sticking from the mid-body into various directions. It hardly looked like any beast Lalli ever saw, but maybe it had some features that would look threatening to the sheltered townsfolk here.

There was a lot of townsfolk. Hundreds, maybe thousands. So many that they sort of blurred together in Lalli’s mind and became a background hum. Which was good, as they were standing in the centre of the crowd’s attention, and he probably would have been extremely uncomfortable if he had actually felt the presence of them all.

There were still more speeches and some music. Emil, Lalli and Reynir were asked to stand on the podium and probably praised as the people seemed to be cheering. Lalli was shutting it all out and watching Emil, who looked very happy and proud.

Finally, it was time for the main act. Emil was presented with a small lighter, and hesitantly he started towards the straw beast. Both Lalli and Reynir followed him down from the podium but stayed a couple of metres behind him when he walked to the beast.

Lalli was whispering under his breath:

_Loihe Lempo liekkejäsi  
valmistele valkiasi  
pirun pukki palakohon  
hiillokseen haipukoon hurja_

(Lempo, bestow your flames  
prepare your fire  
let the devil goat burn  
reduce the fierce (thing) to embers)

Reynir glanced at him and seemed to notice something as he gave a very small nod to Lalli.

Emil took a deep breath, tugged at some of the straw to get an ignition point, and flicked the lighter. At first a tiny flame licked at the tufted straw only but appeared to shy away from the main mass. Very quickly however the fire took, and the leg was flaring. The main body also ignited surprisingly quickly and soon the entire beast was in flames. The crowd was cheering.

Emil took a few steps backwards, but he stayed very close watching the fire. After a while Lalli stepped forward to find him staring mesmerized at the dancing flames. “Come, you’ll get burned”. One of the heads fell from the body with a cascade of sparks. The crowd cheered again. Reluctantly Emil backed up further.

When the remains of the goat beast were turning to embers and the crowd was dispersing, Lalli and Reynir took Emil by each arm and started to lead him back towards the house. Sighing, Emil took one last look at the simmering heap that used to be the Jävlabocken. Lalli and Reynir looked at each other behind his back. Reynir opened his hand to reveal a small scrap of paper and winked to Lalli. They whispered to each other simultaneously: _“Ég hjálpaði svolítið” “Minä autoin vähän”._

Illustration by Kyara: 

**Author's Note:**

> Illustration for the work done by our lovely Kyara! Here's her Tumblr: https://sinnena.tumblr.com/
> 
> If you don't happen to know about the Swedish "fire tradition", google Gävle Goat or Yule Goat. 
> 
> Lempo is a Finnish god of fire, and sometimes also love and passion. 
> 
> The _runo_ in Finnish is in (extremely short) Kalevala meter, but the translation is for information only and is not even trying to be a poem in itself. 
> 
> The final words from both Reynir and Lalli mean "I helped a little".


End file.
